Ironic that those of us in the trenches of online learning—instructional designers, flash developers, leading-edge online instructors and administrators—enjoy a face-to-face gathering periodically. Just this past week, some eighteen of us from DePaul found ourselves at the 24th annual Distance Learning Conference sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

For me, the three keynote addresses tied the conference together: Curtis Bonk (known as Curt once you’ve shared a drink with him) charged the group with his ever-present enthusiasm for all things online. Those of us from DePaul were delighted to find that Curt—who is the pure definition of a “connector” personality type—now includes in his presentation a reference to and photo of our own James Moore’s blog about the Pulse electronic writing tool. And here is James’ blog about that event.

Speaking of connections, George Siemens (University of Manitoba), in his keynote address, presented a new theory of learning—connectivism—based on the realities of the Web 2.0 world, where “learning is the act of building a network and moving through that network in a meaningful manner.”

The final keynoter, Marilyn Moats Kennedy (a former DePaul instructor, by the way) amused the audience with her insights into the defining characteristics of five generations of employees and how to manage them. (As a “boomer,” I’m delighted to know that those who manage me will do almost anything to keep me!) Her engaging approach harbored some interesting observations about the younger generations and provided some interesting perspectives on how we (boomers) can view and assess our students, what motivates them to learn, and how they relate to the workplace. For example, a generation that experienced their boomer parents being laid off is not likely to be a generation that exhibits loyalty to “the company.” They will move around; they expect to move around.

There were multiple opportunities to hear about case studies, rules for assessment, guidelines for designing for critical learning, and issues on institutional policies and support structures. These are the to-do lists we carry back home from such a conference: learn more about Pulse pens, look up this Web site, find out how much it would cost to get a site license for this or that application. The blinders go on—as they need to—and we focus once again on our own institution, our own job description, our own unique set of challenges. And yet, we are fed in some small way by this connection, this face-to-face time to exchange lessons learned, hear new ideas, place our piece of the puzzle into the bigger picture.

And next year… some of us will return to celebrate this opportunity’s quarter of century mark!